1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an incoming-call signaling melody data transmitting apparatus for transmitting incoming-call signaling sound data in a cellular phone to a terminal device, a method therefor, and a system therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent cellular phones include those having a function capable of producing an incoming-call signaling melody sound as an incoming-call signaling sound instead of a simple sound such as beep sound to notify an incoming call to a user upon reception thereof. These cellular phones are grouped into a type in which incoming-call signaling melody sound data is preliminarily set in the cellular phone and a type in which incoming-call signaling melody sound data can be downloaded from an Internet site. Thereby, individual users can select an incoming-call signaling melody and set it as his/her own incoming-call signaling sound.
In more specific, in a service site through which an incoming-call signaling melody can be downloaded from an Internet site, incoming-call signaling melody sound data are preliminarily created and accumulated in a database thereof. To use the service site, a user selects a desired incoming-call signaling melody sound from a list of the preliminarily accumulated incoming-call signaling melody sounds and downloads it.
However, an incoming-call signaling melody sound downloadable by the user is selectable only from the incoming-call signaling melody sounds preliminarily accumulated in the database of the service site. As such, if a different user already downloaded an incoming-call signaling melody sound downloaded by the user, the incoming-call signaling melody sound would most likely be the same as that downloaded by the different user.
Some users are desirous of setting a desired or unique incoming-call signaling melody sound to a cellular phone of their own. That is, users are desirous of using a further original incoming-call signaling melody sound as his/her own incoming-call signaling sound.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-236066 describes a proposal for a cellular phone having a function of creating original incoming-call signaling melody sounds. According to the proposal, a user inputs musical score data for melody to the cellular phone, and then inputs style information and chord information thereto when generating accompaniment parts. Accompaniment data of a drum part, a base part, and a chord part that is stored in, for example, a ROM (read only memory), is selected according to the style information and the chord information that have been input. The accompaniment data of the plurality of selected parts are synthesized with the musical score data for melody, and a musical piece data is thereby generated. The generated musical piece data is then stored into a memory of the cellular phone, thereby enabling the musical piece data to be reproduced upon receipt of an incoming call.
However, music composition is not an easy task and requires the user to have a composing ability. As such, even with the cellular phone disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-236066 being used, every user cannot compose an original incoming-call signaling melody sound. In addition, a significant workload is required to input composition data. Further, inclusion of many circuits for performing the processes described above into a cellular phone complicates the circuit configuration.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an incoming-call signaling melody data transmitting system that enables a user to easily create an original incoming-call signaling melody sound for a cellular phone.